Enrique Iglesias mixes things up with new album

MIAMI (Billboard) - In 1996, Enrique Iglesias, already a Latin star, was shuttled by helicopter to a live show hosted by romantic station KLVE Los Angeles. As the chopper hovered over Westlake Park, Iglesias looked down in surprise at the crowd of approximately 150,000 that waited below.

"I was so shocked," he recalls. "I thought, 'Oh, my God, all these people listen to Spanish music on U.S. soil.'"

Today, as one of the world's biggest stars, Iglesias no longer marvels at the possibilities afforded by two languages; he revels in them.

On Tuesday, Iglesias will release "Euphoria," a potentially trailblazing album for both Iglesias and the Latin market. Whereas most Latin artists will record an album with Spanish- and English-language versions of a particular song (or songs), or record separate Spanish and English albums altogether, Iglesias has chosen a new route: "Euphoria" features six songs written and recorded in Spanish and four completely different songs written and recorded in English.

The album will be released in standard and deluxe versions through Universal Music Group. It will be released in every Universal territory -- more than 70 countries -- with a third, international version with eight English-language tracks specifically designed for markets like the United Kingdom that have small Latin audiences and where Iglesias is a major seller.

This has lent itself to an Iglesias sonic wallpaper of sorts. While his current Spanish-language single "Cuando Me Enamoro," featuring Juan Luis Guerra, has spent four weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart -- a spot it hit only five weeks after its release -- his English-language single "I Like It," featuring Pitbull and Lionel Richie (who rerecorded parts of "All Night Long" for the song), is scaling the Billboard Hot 100 and currently stands at No. 26.

Iglesias was all over iTunes' real-time charts. As of June 23, "I Like It" was No. 14 on iTunes' Songs chart and No. 1 on the iTunes Latino chart, where Iglesias had four of the top 10 songs, including "No Me Digas Que No" (featuring Wisin & Yandel) at No. 5, "Cuando Me Enamoro" (featuring Juan Luis Guerra) at No. 6 and perennial favorite "Hero" at No. 7.

Overseas, Iglesias has been on promotional visits to Mexico, the United Kingdom, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Finland, Spain and Germany. As of June 22, "I Like It" was in the top 10 on iTunes' charts in Australia, Belgium and Spain and in the top 20 in Mexico and Norway.
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